Same here. I don't own a lab and certainly don't want to buy it and try. Beside CPU here, we got other components in the system. So 65W verus 95W I prefer to have more features and power over the 30W saving.

Having done the comparisons, what's your feeling on if it's worth the premium price of the lower power processors?

It depends on the difference in price and your tolerance for unlucky binning. TDP #s for a SKU are a guarantee, you might do a lot better (i.e. a 95W part that only draws 75W) but you won't do worse. When the premium is small, I do think it's worth it. As the gap widens, not so much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StardogChampion

If, like I said above, the power draw is the only way to make power usage more efficient -- since the common tasks (idle and using media) cannot be made faster -- it seems to make sense to pay for the premium silicon for HTPC usage.

However, for beyond HTPC usage (transcoding, ripping, etc.) the faster processors might use less power because they do the work faster. 25% more power draw but done in 1/2 the time = less power usage.

What I don't understand is how the power usage savings translates to $$$ savings. That's a bit more math.

TBH, the "green" part of the TDP question isn't as compelling to me as the HSF + active cooling. I place a premium on a quiet, good looking HTPC; something that is much easier with at 65 (or 35)W CPU.

This is a low-end family of the Intel Sandy Bridge processor ("Celeron" Sandy Bridge will also come soon) including G620T, G620, G840 and soon G850, all 2 core, 2 thread processors with integrated graphics called "Intel HD Graphics". Well, this is almost identical with "Intel HD Graphics" of the 1st gen Core i3 processor (Clarkdale). In particular it supports:

Precisely speaking, MVC decode was not supported by the 1st gen Core i3, so this is new. The following new features added to the 2nd gen Core processor (i.e. Core i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge) are not supported:

If you are not interested in stereoscopic 3D with a HDMI 1.4a 3D display or Quick Sync, a Pentium processor, in particular G620 2.6GHz (fast enough for 2D HD video playback in non-DXVA and cheap), is an excellent choice.

As for stereoscopic 3D, Pentium supports the following 3D formats just fine:

- Checkerboard (supported by older Mitsubishi/Samsung 3D ready DLP displays, as well as the latest Samsung and LG 3D displays)
- Side by Side (Half)
- Top and Bottom
- Interleaved

as these formats are within HDMI 1.3 specifications.

T Version: 35W TDP

- Pentium G620: 2.6GHz, 65W
- Pentium G620T: 2.2GHz, 35W

So at first G620T seems to be a good choice for HTPC (lower power consumption -> lower noise, lower electric bill). Unfortunately this turned out not correct. AC power draw from the wall (measured with Kill-A-Watt) of the system consisting of

So basically G620T is not a cherry-picked die with lower leakage current, but just a lower-clocked version with lower running voltage. Even I can obtain a G620T from G620 by simply limiting the max multiplier to 22! A possible advantage of G620T is that it comes with a CPU cooler of height ~30mm (the same one as Core i3-2100T), that fits some SFF cases nicely (a disadvantage of this cooler is that it's pretty noisy at load; I would rather choose the normal G620 and this cooler if I need a good low-profile cooler, well worth the money). Otherwise I don't see a reason to choose G620T over G620.

I saw exactly the same relation between Core i3-2100 3.1GHz 65W and Core i3-2100T 2.5GHz 35W. Under the same configuration as above,

Core i3-2100

Core i3-2100 @2.5GHz

Core i3-2100T

Idle

39W

39W

38W

BD playback by PDVD11 (DXVA)

44W

44W

43W

DVD playback by PDVD11 (TrueTheater HD)

56W

55W

56W

x264 HD Benchmark 2nd Pass

72W

63W

64W

Prime95

74W

64W

65W

FurMark

55W

55W

54W

Prime95+FurMark

88W

77W

72W

There is almost zero difference between the two at idle and video playback. I also tried to underclock 2100 by limiting the multiplier to 25. I got another 2100T instantly (except for Prime95+FurMark). Silent PC Review's article confirms this:

x264 HD Benchmark 2nd Pass

Processor

Frame/second

Power

Energy/frame

Pentium G620T

9.37 fps

60W

6.40 Joule/frame (= 60W/9.37fps)

Pentium G620

11.13 fps

58W

5.21 Joule/frame

Pentium G840

11.93 fps

64W

5.36 Joule/frame

Core i3-2100T

13.24 fps

64W

4.83 Joule/frame

Core i3-2100

16.30 fps

72W

4.42 Joule/frame

In general an "energy-efficient" processor consumes more energy to finish the task (of course nobody would choose an energy-efficient processor to do CPU intensive tasks).

How does AMD beat G620 + H61 for budget builds? Right now if someone came to me and said they want something to surf the 'net, watch HD videos, run Office and tasks like that I'd build nothing else. AMD was ALWAYS my go to for budget builds, even as soon as 6 months ago (exception: nettops and D525).

Any idea how well that low profile Gelid cooler would work with a 2100? If you have a Microcenter nearby it seems worthwhile to spend the $99 to get the 2100 over a 2100t or 620/620t. I'd just be worried about cooling, especially in a Habey like case.

so there is literally zero difference at idle and video playback. I tried to underclock 2100 by limiting the multiplier to 25. I got another 2100T instantly.

Nice results, and good info, thanks for sharing all your tests. Just a side note, the 2100T does come with lower profile cooler, so while 2100 is cheaper, faster and could be moved into a 2100T kinda with the multi, people looking for low profile cooler still might find the 2100T a good solution.

A lot of people have noted that the 2100T cooler is kinda obnoxious however. So if you want a quieter cooler, you might want to save the $$$ up front and just invest in the better cooler.

And you may ask yourself well how did I get here?
And you may ask yourself am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say to yourself: What have I done?!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Once you let the trolls run the bridge, you have a bridge run by trolls. I'll be back.

A couple of low-profile coolers that are better than the 2100T/G620T stock cooler (30 mm tall) and shorter than the 2100/G620 stock cooler (46 mm tall). The cooling performance increases in this order (perhaps):

DVD was played back in TrueTheater HD mode to see how the power consumption is when CPU is used for decode/post-processing (I should have added a comment). The power consumption at DVD playback in DXVA mode is more or less the same as BD playback.

DVD was played back in TrueTheater HD mode to see how the power consumption is when CPU is used for decode/post-processing (I should have added a comment). The power consumption at DVD playback in DXVA mode is more or less the same as BD playback.

DVD was played back in TrueTheater HD mode to see how the power consumption is when CPU is used for decode/post-processing (I should have added a comment). The power consumption at DVD playback in DXVA mode is more or less the same as BD playback.

So quiet! The lack of hard drive searching noise is so noticeable, especially sitting next to my 6 year old gateway laptop. So far, it has ripped its way through every torture test I have thrown at it. It will be replacing a 4 year old popcorn hour a-100 streamer, that did its job valiantly, but stumbled on some 1080p bd rips. The same ones that caused the popcorn hour to hiccup are like a warm stick of butter to this hot knife of a machine.

Also, it idles at 22 watts, peaks at 39 during boot and topped out at 53 on prime 95+furmark.

At AVS Forum, where a number of posts have described it as "loud" or "quite loud". I have a Microcenter nearby, and was tempted to drive there for a 2100 for $99, but I find no evidence the above-linked Gelid cooler is actually for sale in the U.S. so I'm not as excited about going 3rd party since the Thermaltake cooler was reviewed and called more or less one of the worst coolers ever and there is but one review of the Scythe, which describes it as not noisy, but lacks a lot of the kind of testing I like to see.

And you may ask yourself well how did I get here?
And you may ask yourself am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say to yourself: What have I done?!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Once you let the trolls run the bridge, you have a bridge run by trolls. I'll be back.

At AVS Forum, where a number of posts have described it as "loud" or "quite loud". I have a Microcenter nearby, and was tempted to drive there for a 2100 for $99, but I find no evidence the above-linked Gelid cooler is actually for sale in the U.S. so I'm not as excited about going 3rd party since the Thermaltake cooler was reviewed and called more or less one of the worst coolers ever and there is but one review of the Scythe, which describes it as not noisy, but lacks a lot of the kind of testing I like to see.

The majority opinion on avs is that the stock coolers work just fine and are plenty quiet for typical htpc duties.

The majority opinion on avs is that the stock coolers work just fine and are plenty quiet for typical htpc duties.

I'm not disputing that assassin. I'm more of the SilentPCReview crowd I suppose. I don't want to hear the computer. I don't want the computer to get noisy on a warm day. And based on those that don't care for the 2100t cooler, I'm suspecting I won't care for it either.

Regardless, the fact that the replacement coolers are more or less non-options (except the Scythe) limits the choice matrix.

And you may ask yourself well how did I get here?
And you may ask yourself am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say to yourself: What have I done?!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Once you let the trolls run the bridge, you have a bridge run by trolls. I'll be back.

Good catch Rene, I went through more than a dozen of the vendors on their site only to not find it even listed....

Google turns up no actual reviews of it however.

And you may ask yourself well how did I get here?
And you may ask yourself am I right? Am I wrong?
And you may say to yourself: What have I done?!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Once you let the trolls run the bridge, you have a bridge run by trolls. I'll be back.

Nice results, and good info, thanks for sharing all your tests. Just a side note, the 2100T does come with lower profile cooler, so while 2100 is cheaper, faster and could be moved into a 2100T kinda with the multi, people looking for low profile cooler still might find the 2100T a good solution.

Yes, that's the primary reason I chose it for my build in a Habey EMC-800b - the standard i3-2100 cooler would likely not fit.

A couple of low-profile coolers that are better than the 2100T/G620T stock cooler (30 mm tall) and shorter than the 2100/G620 stock cooler (46 mm tall). The cooling performance increases in this order (perhaps):